Sploid: Where awesome, wild, and breathtaking tech moments burst into view.
There are very few stadiums in the world that leave you truly speechless when you walk in. Maracanã is one of them. The other one is Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, the best club of the 20th century. The famous coliseum is getting a major remake. It looks like a spaceship about to start abducting people.…
Clovis—a New Mexico town northeast of Roswell—has been devoured by The Tumbleweeddom. Resident Lee Cassidy said that “it looked like a herd of cows coming… the tumbleweeds were just rolling in here.” And indeed they rolled, burying streets and homes under piles over 8 feet high. The scenes are surreal. Talking to News Channel 10,…
Here is China’s latest Chinese fad: Tron power cars. Because nothing is more high tech than BMWs, Lamborghinis, and Nissan GTRs decorated with 3M reflective vinyl tape. That’s why their lunar rover failed—their engineers forgot to line it with neon blue tape. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
You’ve seen Felix Baumgartner’s harrowing jump from 128,1000 feet above Earth’s surface, but you haven’t seen it like this. This new exhilarating video shows you what it was like from Felix’s point of view with perfect clarity. Fast forward to the 1:40 mark for the action. The feat is just as incredible now as it…
I’m not sure what it is about seeing a giant piece of metal being swallowed by another giant piece of metal but it’s almost therapeutic. It’s like seeing insect fights on YouTube but on a more gargantuan, real life Transformers level. Whatever it is, I can’t get enough. Here’s the Hammel Red Giant Car Shredder…
We’ve really come a long, long way when it comes to special effects in movies. It makes sense that today’s movies look great because of all our computer whiz processing power animation software. Back in the old days though? We had to rely on the magic of the movies. Seriously. Turning scale models that look…
There’s a lot of violence in movies and TV shows. Guns, blood and murder are welcomed into the family living room by the bleary eyes of desensitized souls. But it’s entertaining! But it’s also pretty ridiculous how un-shocking it is to see. We can pass violent ads without giving it a second look. This artist…
Terrifying. Skydiving is already brown your pants scary when you’re conscious. Imagine being unconscious while you’re falling from 12,500 feet in the air. Think about all the horrible things that could happen. That’s what happened to skydiver James Lee. Luckily, miraculously, thankfully, impossibly, he survived the fall. The Telegraph says that Lee was hit by…
Starting in 1977 with Star Wars and moving all the way until last year with Gravity, this video covers all the Academy Awards winners for best visual effects. It’s a wonderful walk through movie history and revealing to see how much more realistic movies have gotten through fake computer generated effects. One thing though, Star…
What are you looking at? Some trees, some leaves, a few branches and… a bird. You see, on top of that broken tree branch actually stands a completely still bird, the common potoo. It’s hiding in plain sight and will stay that way even if predators are deathly close to them. The common potoo stands…
This image—found by Erika Engelhaupt—shows the best places to hide in case of a nuclear blast, part of a recent government guide about what to do in case of a nuclear detonation. It’s scary to see that the US is still actively considering this risk. Take Michael B. Dillon, a scientist at the Lawrence Livermore…
These are the first monkeys with customized mutations were just born in China, marking a new era in precision gene editing. (Read: bringing us closer to a Gattaca-like future where designer babies grow into perfect people that never get sick.) They are twins. Working out of the Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University, a…
You’re probably not going to instantly become as talented an artist as Marcello Barenghi by simply watching these wonderful timelapses of his photorealistic drawings. But it’s still utterly captivating to see them come to life, and all the tiny details that make them look so real. And who knows, maybe watching someone bring something as…
Screw Google Glass. What I want is to see the world slowed down, shot at 500 frames per second and played back at 24 frames per second whenever I want. Or see time-lapses by blinking twice and accelerating time. Example: This corgi. Just imagine being able to watch anything in the real world and be…
I can’t stop looking at the extraordinary photos by Thomas Shahan, an Oregon-based artist and microphotographer who creates amazing portraits of arthropods, including these awesome jumping spiders. His beautiful monsters don’t make me run in fear, but make me smile (knowing they are tiny, that is.) In fact, some of their faces are hilarious. Above:…
Here’s another heartbeat-accelerating video courtesy of your usual bunch of suicidal Russians: Ropejumping off the rock walls of North Nassrani, in Jordan. The crazy thing about ropejumping is that you really risk your physical integrity by doing it. The ropes are not elastic, like in bungee jumping. It all depends on physics: [Unlike bungee jumping]…
Sit back, grab a hot cup of tea, maybe open up a bag of cookies and enjoy yourself with this lovely musical animation called Love in the Time of Advertising. It’s a short made by David Bokser & Matt Berenty and it’s adorable in all the right ways, punching through with humor, emotion, double meanings…
Sure the constant bzz bzz buzz of a drone would get annoying. And of course the invasion of privacy thing is a little bit of a concern. But man, it sure looks fun to see all your life’s exploits get recorded from the angle of the all seeing eye of the drone. Just watch this…
What happens when you pour beer onto a frying pan? It boils and evaporates, right? Not exactly. The beer sort of turns into this goopy blob that looks like some alien amoeba. Look at it go and tell me you’re not going to do this the next time you’re drunk (don’t do this while you’re…
New music is often just old music put together in different ways. There’s only so many notes you can play, tunes you can sing, words you can string, you know? It’s just how it works, music sampling happens whether it’s acknowledged or not. For an entertaining look at the history of sampling, watch the video…
